Monday, 11 June 2012

Hair Miracle In A Bottle?

So you guys know I recently f**ked up my hair royally by using an at home relaxer (see here for more details) and I've been searching for wonder products to restore my hairs health. Well.. this was recommended to me by someone I chat to on twitter and having looked it up myself it seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. Everyone raves about it, it's supposedly a miracle in a bottle so obviously I had to try it. I finally got to give it a go at the weekend and I have to say I was distinctly underwhelmed by my results. Here's my hair before...

Bare in mind this is after I'd chopped off a couple of inches myself and deep conditioned round the clock. It's still pretty fried. I had read a lot about protein treatments and was a little worried as you can apparently 'overdose' your hair on protein so if you apply it to hair that doesn't need it (ie healthy hair) it can actually have a negative effect and cause damage and breakage. I'd already come this far so I knew I was going to try it but I only applied it from about half way down my head as I didn't want to ruin my still healthy roots.

The packaging directs you to wash and blot dry your hair before saturating it with the protein treatment (step one). The treatment was watery and difficult to apply so I'd recommend doing it over the sink as I did or better still decanting it in to a spray bottle. That would have been much easier and I'd have been likely to get a better coverage.

Although my hair looks saturated in hindsight I don't think I used nearly enough. If I was to use it again I would towel off my hair til it was almost totally dry rather than 'blot dry' as it directed. It was hard to tell where my hair was wet from water and where I'd applied the treatment. Anyway.. once it's on you can't touch it.. no combing, nothing. You now have to blowdry it until it's 100% dry. I was warned it would set very hard but I didn't really experience that.. another sign I may not have used enough product. It was very tacky and the remnants on my hands and shoulders were irritatingly sticky but I blowdried away.

It took maybe 30-40mins before I considered my hair totally dry. I was left with this which looks wet but it's just crispy, kind of like I'd applied a ton of gel.. you know that old school 'scrunched' look? I rinsed thoroughly and then applied the balancing moisturiser. Protein adds strength to weak hair but it doesn't add any moisture, if anything it dries the hair out so adding the moisture back in is an integral part of any protein treatment. I had seen a lot of reviews that advised the use of any extra intensive conditioner after this though so I also used my Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Reconstructor.

Unfortunately as I mentioned earlier the results were disappointing. Considering that I always add a hair oil before styling (I think I used Moroccan Oil that day) this is what I was left with.. a frizzy mess. It may look smooth but the ends of my hair are about 3x as thick as the rest of it. I'm not sure if I did something wrong and I'm considering giving it another go but I'm a little concerned this may actually have made the damage worse.

I've tried almost everything to restore my hair and even though I've cut it once I think the time has come. I have a haircut booked for Wednesday and it has until then to shape up or something short and bobby this way comes I'm afraid.

Have any of you tried ApHogee hair care?

From what I gather it's popular among those with afro hair types so perhaps I'm just the wrong demographic altogether but I expected such awesome results after reading the amazing reviews. Once thing I do want to mention for any of you finding this looking for reviews of the product, I didn't find the smell of the treatment to be too terrible at all. Everyone complains that it smells horrendous but to me it just smelled a little of vinegar.. I think they may be a little oversensitive!

9 comments:

I brought this on eBay on friday and missed the postman today so I'm off to collect it tomorrow. The reason why is I have white hair and getting white hair meant alot of colouring so my hair is currently in such bad condition, When I wake up it's like a afro because it's so frizzy. Hair oils have been my best friend but I need something alot better that's gonna seriously do some good work, I looked at redken treatments and then come across ApHogee so I thoguht why not it's worth a try. I have watched videos and it seems to dry rock soild in the videos and blog posts. Maybe try again and put a ton of it in ? I know that it says only use every 6 weeks so I'm not sure if you could try again. xxxxxxxhttp://neonpinkrubberduck.blogspot.co.uk/http://www.youtube.com/neonpinkrubberduck/

Oh I feel so bad about moaning about my damaged hair, it's quite frazzled isn't it? :( The best thing I have found for mine to use on a regular basis is Dark and Lovely colestoral intense conditioner for Afro Caribbean hair, it just made sense to me one day to purchase it as generally Afro hair goes through so many chemical processes like straightening and dying and they have so many hair care products aimed at rebuilding their hair (in fact an entire section in my local boots!) It's a bright yellow mask and is nothing fancy but only cost £1.80 a tub and I used it every other wash, I soon found the damaged hair was getting distinctly better! It's worth a go for the cost anyway but I promise it'll work!!!

I haven't heard of this before, but it sounds really interesting...I agree with NeonPinkRubberDuck...maybe give it another go - if you do it would be good to hear how you get on with it! Rachel from www.whatabeauty.co.uk x

I haven't heard of this, but as the others said, you should try to use products for a few weeks before writing them off, you know? They don't straight away, try using it at least four or five times, especially since you've paid for it now! :)

hi, i love the aphogee protein treatment. i recommend you try it one more time and just add more product to ur hair. i also recommend the aphogee shampoo and the serum. dont really like the conditioner. also if you do decide to try it again when u wash out the product wash it out with the shampoo and then add your favorite conditioner i think you'll notice a difference.